These articles were written for us by people who usually do their talking through music and song. Now here they are in their own words.

Abby Newton

Abby Newton is a cellist of unusual versatility who has long been associated with two of Scotland's premier musicians: singer Jean Redpath and fiddler Alasdair Fraser. She has composed cello parts for over fifty recordings by a variety of folk artists on both sides of the Atlantic, and has made it her mission to re-establish the cello in traditional Scottish music, bringing the instrument back into the fold in her many concerts, recordings, and masterclasses. She writes for us about her musical travels and the beginnings of the trio Ferintosh, featured on Thistle.

References to the Isle of Skye, just off the west coast of mainland Scotland, permeate Alasdair Fraser's work: Skyedance, his first duo album with Paul Machlis, the band Skyedance and many tunes named for people, places, or events on Skye. In July 1987, the internationally acclaimed Scots fiddler taught the first summer fiddle course at Sabhal Mor Ostaig Gaelic College on Skye. Fifteen years later he wrote to us from the island and reflected on the changes he's witnessed since his fiddle course began.

Anna-Wendy Stevenson is a lecturer in traditional music at the Lews Castle College in Benbecula, Outer Hebrides. She has played fiddle with trio Fine Friday, the Bella MacNab Ceilidh Band, Dougie MacLean, Calluna, and currently Jock Tamson’s Bairns. Her solo album “Anna-Wendy Stevenson” and “Gowd and Silver,” her collaboration with her composer and pianist grandfather Ronald Stevenson, have both been critically acclaimed. In 2006 she was commissioned by the Celtic Connections Festival to write an extensive work for strings, percussion, piano and saxophone.

William Caudill is Director of the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina, an academic, and Instructor of the St. Andrews Pipe Band. These are his reflections of a (not so) old piper. (For more information on the Scottish Heritage Center, which houses the Fiona Ritchie Radio Archive go to www.sapc.edu)

Singer Connie Dover has spread Celtic song traditions throughout North America and offers us a unique perspective on the creative process from fringe of the Kansas prairie, urging Americans to lay claim to their Celtic musical heritage.